LTH Forum sold for $40,000

Steve Cavendish

LTH Forum, one of the most popular chat sites for Chicago foodies, was sold at auction today for $40,000 to a group of longtime participants who pledged that there will be no drastic changes in the near term.

"We are excited," said David Dickson who takes possession of the site along with Ron Kaplan and Steve Zaransky. "There are no specific or immediate changes we're planning other than to open the process up a little."

Dickson told the Tribune earlier this month that the three of them were "in a position in our lives where we can do this. This is a labor of love for us."

LTH Forum was put into play as part of founder Gary Wiviott's bankruptcy proceedings. The proceeds of the sale will be used to pay his outstanding creditors, including charter LTH Forum member Peter Daane, who had sued Wiviott over unpaid debt.

Court trustee Gregg Szilagyi, who was in charge of the auction, said he was "thrilled with the price considering what the market otherwise would have brought."

Several others looked at bidding for LTH, "a handful of tire-kickers" Szilagyi called them, and said one local Internet entrepreneur, who he didn't name, had done a fair amount of due diligence before concluding that he couldn't make the numbers work.

Chatter on the site by members concerned about commercialization may have scared away more lucrative bids, Szilagyi said. Because members are the heart of the site's content, an outsider who bought LTH could have been faced with a mass exodus upon purchase.

"It could happen with any social media site," Szilagyi said.

The site operates without advertising and is free to join.

Created in 2004 by a group of commenters from the Chowhound boards, LTH Forum (the LTH stands for Chinatown restaurant Little Three Happiness) has become a message board for passionate food devotees and a crib sheet for tourists and food writers. In recent years the forum launched the "Great Neighborhood Restaurants" awards, which the community designates as great eating finds in and around Chicago.

Dickson said the site, which hasn't changed dramatically in its seven years of existence, will probably need to "freshen up" a little.

In a post to the membership, the three said they hoped to open LTH up to other media and welcomed posters new and old alike.

"In fact, we hope we can be more open in a lot of ways. More open to engaging with other web sites, media, bloggers, anyone who seems compatible with who we are. Yes, that means obvious things, like a link page, but also being open to other ideas as they come up. We will immediately be more open to new people helping us to run this site. LTHForum has been run for seven years by the same people. They are great people and have done an excellent job, and we are glad to say they are all sticking around. But new hands, new ideas, more help - these things are nothing but good," they wrote.